'No Man's Sky' update: BioWare admits using failed formula for 'Mass Effect Andromeda'

"Mass Effect: Andromeda" is suffering from the same plight that "No Man's Sky" had to endure. These include trying to fix a broken product through patches, hoping to restore some sense in an ambitious game that failed to hit the right chords.

BioWare (for "Mass Effect: Andromeda") and Hello Games (for "No Man's Sky") raised the bar in terms of ambition. While such is common for any game developer, aligning these goals by delivering expectations is a must. Both faltered, unfortunately, and a recent interview with Kotaku explains why.

It turns out that the people behind "Mass Effect: Andromeda" had a similar vision of delivering an ambitious game similar to "No Man's Sky." The former was supposed to be a "No Man's Sky" type of an experience, though addressing the technical angle was (severely) overlooked. So while team BioWare is making a case of delivering numerous explorable planets, their inability to create a unique gaming environment did them in.

The story behind "No Man's Sky" is that it offered recurring scenarios, which shot down the anxiety behind the quintillion planets initially hyped before it rolled out, as mentioned in a previous post. "Mass Effect: Andromeda" tried to do one better, though it had to scale down the numbers to 30 planets - only seven actually made it to the game. Either way, the point is, the storylines for both titles never got to create the uniqueness gamers were looking for, thus the debacles.

Cutting it short, there was too much on the table for both "Andromeda" and "No Man's Sky." The intent was daunting, not to mention there was the inability to cover other areas to make things work.

Right now, both BioWare and Hello Games are trying to do what they can. They are taking small steps with patches that can hopefully stop the bleeding.

Looking ahead, there is no telling if the efforts of both gaming companies turn things around for "Andromeda" and/or "No Man's Sky." The developers, however, are trying their best to iron out things, better than waving the white flag of surrender and seeing their IPs go down the drain.

There are still gamers logged on for both "Mass Effect: Andromeda" and "No Man's Sky," likely hoping for the best. For both BioWare and Hello Games, aiming high is commendable, though delivering and covering all bases is still a need.